Governing the Future: Goals and Tools

The course has an interdisciplinary character and it pursues three main learning objectives.
First, the course aims at introducing students to major topics and themes animating ongoing public debates. The selected themes and topics will be addressed with a view to provide a practical sense of the challenges and opportunities connected to current political or social-economic phenomena and trends, on the one hand, and to offer students the opportunity to better grasp the requirements for devising long-term strategic plans, on the other.
Second, the course intends to familiarize students with methodological tools to critically interpret political or socio-economic phenomena, to analyze empirical data and to develop rigorous research designs in the field of social sciences and philosophy.
Third, the course aims at offering students high-level training in logics and argumentative strategies, which will strengthen students' analytical capacities and their ability to assess and defend normative and policy proposals.

Knowledge and understanding
Students are expected to acquire in-depth knowledge concerning some major issues at the centre of current political debates and a clear understanding about the relevant considerations for developing effective long-term plans to address challenging and controversial public questions. Students are also expected to acquire advanced methodological competences to examine and assess empirical phenomena as well as consolidated familiarity with argumentative strategies.

Applying knowledge and understanding
Students are expected to be able to apply their acquired methodological and argumentative competences to interpret and evaluate political events or phenomena and to devise and defend policy or normative proposals that are sensitive to criteria of feasibility and effectiveness, on the one hand, and to value considerations, on the other.

Making judgment
At the end of the course, students are expected be able to formulate autonomous and rigorous judgments, based on accurate empirical analyses. Students are also expected to be able to autonomously and critically assess arguments proposed within public debates, to verify their logical consistency and their empirical reliability.

Communication
Students are expected to strengthen and refine their communicative skills, thanks to specific training in argumentative strategies and logics and to in-class discussions, which are specifically meant to provide students with opportunities for practicing and improve their communicative abilities.